Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Welcome back to another edition of Questions and Answers! In this section, we will endeavour to answer your Ubuntu questions. Be sure to add details of the version of your operating system and your hardware. I will try to remove any personally identifiable strings from questions, but it is best not to include things like serial numbers, UUIDs or IP addresses. If your question does not appear immediately, it is just because there is such a lot, and I do them, first-come-first-served.
NOTE: Guys, with the latest Google hack, my Gmail accounts are all in limbo, if you sent me any messages there, I will get to those only when it unfreezes again.
So, the other day my boss got me to order some cell phones for a client. One of the retail stores was 2k cheaper than everyone else – probably incorrect pricing, but we bought anyway. I think they realized afterwards, but by then we had already paid and were waiting to receive them. (There was a delay, as they have to clear EFTs with head office.) I called to find out if I can collect yet. I was paired with another customer who was calling about his M$-office license. We realised we were 2 customers and went about calling again. Again, we got matched. Eventually I asked him what the issue was. He said he was in a farming community, and bought office licenses, and it does not work. I offered to help and within a minute we had it sorted via Anydesk. I immediately had a new client and they lost one. All because they did not pay a receptionist minimum wage, and entrusted automated machinery to handle their calls. I am not saying automation is bad, but some things require a human touch. Would that CEO miss 10 grand a month off his salary to pay someone to answer the phone? Definitely not. Taking 10 grand from all the upper management salaries and employing an army of receptionists, would not even dent their strides. Losing customers will hurt everyone else in the company. CEOs walk away with golden handshakes when the company folds, workers get retrenched… (am I wrong?). Linux and most of its related applications are free. Would it hurt you to donate a coffee to a developer of your favourite application(s)??? OR… Would you rather he/she develops for Macs – for the crumbs from the Apple store?
Q: Hey man, how can I get more wallpapers? Is it possible to get all back issues of the Ubuntu wallpapers going back all the way to Warty? Thanks.
A: Open the Synaptic package manager and do a search for wallpapers. Tick them all and install and enjoy!
Q: My question may be a bit mundane, but I need to know. I want to make a script of applications PLUS their dependencies for installation, so that I can copy it to a USB stick and use it over and over. I currently hop between Ubuntu distros and want to quickly be able to have the same machine.
A: The easiest way I know of is to open Synaptic, mark all the packages that you want, and Synaptic will mark the dependencies for you. You then simply click on ‘file’ and ‘generate download script’. Name it, and save it to your thumb drive. You need to install Synaptic only on the PC you are making your script on.
Q: I tried your tutorials, but I keep getting “Couldn't open a raw socket. Error: Permission denied (13)” with nmap. I have obviously installed it wrong, but I even tried the administrative command-line and still nothing. I tried with Ubuntu 18 and 20.
A: “Administrative command line” is telling. You will get that error in WSL as windows took that away long ago “to prevent hackers using windows to hack with”. SMH.
Q: Guy, I am getting so frustrated with Xubuntu 18.04 and VLC. I have tearing ¾ down the screen. All the stuff about composters and the like is not working. It is noticeable even with MP4 files. I download an ASMR video from youtube, and the playback is torn. It’s not even H.264. My laptop is an i5 with 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. No proprietary cards or drivers. This should not happen.
A: Step1: set VLC video output to “OpenGL video output”. Step2: With sudo, create a folder and file here: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf . Put this code inside that file and reboot:
Section “Device”
Identifier “Intel Graphics”
Driver “intel”
Option “AccelMethod” “sna”
Option “TearFree” “true”
EndSection
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_graphics#Tear-free_video
Q: My dual booted computer (Ubuntu 20.04 + Windows 10) has the following error. “Dirty bit is set. FS was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.”
A: Usually, that happens when the Windows partition did not shut down cleanly. However, it could be the Ubuntu filesystem, but it is an 80/20 chance that it’s Windows. Fsck your linux partition, and run ‘chkdsk /f’ on your windows one.
Q: I am new to Xubuntu, I come from Windows 8, where I used Total Commander to bulk rename my files, for instance removing those numbers and letters from Youtube videos if you grab the whole playlist. I have looked at alternative.to, but I don’t get along with those file commanders.
A: Thunar is actually very capable there; simply select all the files you wish to rename, and use the automation, like remove 8 characters from the end and you should be golden - without downloading and installing extra software.
Q: Hi, quick one. Some things like setting fan speeds and fast charging are missing in Ubuntu, that I could do with Windows, before. How can I get that Lenovo control panel in Ubuntu to use those functions?
A: You can try installing the application with WINE or you can contact the manufacturer. Those kinds of things are usually proprietary, so it takes a while to filter to FOSS.
Q: After catching up on Mr Robot, I installed Kali Linux next to my Ubuntu install. I want to keep my Ubuntu PPA repositories. Is there a way for me to quickly transfer them from one install to the other, without having to boot between the two?
A: Simply, no, and don’t do it, as you will break your Kali updates.
Q: It has become time to say goodbye to Leopard on my Quad G5. Ubuntu seems to be my preferred distro. I say ‘seems to be’ as I have not yet installed it. I have become attached to Runecats Roccat. Is here a way I can make it work in Ubuntu? (This will influence my choice of distro).
A: You need to check a few things first, like: does Ubuntu still support PowerPC? As far as I know, Roccat browser is Mac only, meaning it will not run on Ubuntu and as the code is not open source, you can’t even compile it yourself.
Q: I am trying out Ubuntu Unity remix. I would like to edit the menu a bit. How would I do that?
A: I am not sure. You would have to see what menu the remix uses. If you want to catch some fish on dry land, you can try alacarte. Otherwise, I found this: https://sourcedigit.com/24626-how-to-edit-application-menu-in-ubuntu/
Maybe one of our readers can help?
Q: My question is ubuntu related, but also not quite, so if you don’t answer, it is OK too. We have recently converted to solar energy with gel batteries. I sit up late at night on my computer, when the power is low. I don’t want to drain the batteries too quickly. My friend suggested I use Ubuntu to lessen my power usage. However, I am not sure if it is Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc, that I should use. Can you point me in the right direction pls?
A: The biggest draw would be your PSU, don’t use a 750W when a 250W will do. Secondly, check out wattOS. (I read somewhere it is making a return). Based on Ubuntu, but optimised for minimal power usage.
Q: Why can’t I update from Voyager - Ubuntu package based - 18.04 to 20.04? I am quite upset about this.
A: Theoretically, it is possible, but they say on their website that there is no upgrade path. You need to back up and do a fresh install of 20.04, then make a user with the same name and copy your backed up user in again. See it as an opportunity to start fresh.
Q: I am currently still on Ubuntu 18.04. My issue is that I have tried more than 10 times to download e-sword and install it. I am not a fundi, but I feel very dumb here.
A: Are you using crossover or wine? Why don’t you save yourself the trouble and install Xiphos? It is compatible with e-sword and is Linux native. E-sword is Windows only and I do not see a wine bottle for it.
Q: Help! What does this mean? E: Malformed entry 37 in list file /etc/apt/sources.list (Component) E: The list of sources could not be read. E: _cache→open() failed.
A: Go to line 37 in your sources.list and comment it out. (Use a # at the beginning of the line). Don’t just add sources without knowing they are for Ubuntu.
Q: How can I make Firefox look more like Chrome in Ubuntu? It just seems dated compared to Chrome. I can’t waste bandwidth having to update Chrome on a daily basis.
A: I am a bit unsure what you want, but I assume it is that Chrome has more screen real estate. Click on the hamburger menu in the top right, choose customize. Then look at the bottom-left and take the tick off “title bar” and you should have a Chrome look-alike.
Q: I have a 2GB swap partition as well as a 2GB swap file. I see that system monitor shows that my swap space is 2GB. How do I know which one it is using?
A: Open a terminal and type: swapon -s
Q: I added some applications via Gdebi via downloaded *.deb files. I needed space on my SSD and deleted all my debs. How do I now uninstall them easily?
Also I am not sure what they all were, so trying to download them one-by-one to uninstall is not an option. I am not too sure of myself at the terminal, so I would like to avoid it if I can. Thank you.
A: Install ‘Stacer’ and use its uninstaller to remove the applications. You should be able to see all installed applications. I do suggest that you run a sudo apt-get autoremove from the terminal once you are done to clean up orphans. (I am almost sure the clean-up option in Stacer does not do that).
Q: I want to back up a Centos server to import into a new Ubuntu server. I am new to all this, and don’t want to skip any open files in use. How can I see that? Also, who is on the server so I can ask them to log off before I back up.
A: Linux is not Windows, you can have multiple access to a file. That said, you can have a look at what is running with ps (use ps -aux). You can simply type w to see who is on. Depending on your backup software, you can create a snapshot as-is even if someone is busy editing a document.
Q: I want to know something that has been bothering me. Is POPOS Ubuntu or not? Why should I choose it over normal Ubuntu?
A: Yes, currently POP OS is Ubuntu - with extras to make your life simpler with their hardware. Have a look here: https://itsfoss.com/pop-os-vs-ubuntu/
Q: Why did Ubuntu change the server install?
A: Not sure, we are not at Ubuntu, but a community magazine, more information here: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/server-installer-plans-for-20-04-lts/13631